WASTED Paper or Wasted TREES?

The word “waste” itself means that once a product is destined to be thrown out, it automatically falls into this category. It is also a very powerful word which may have a powerful impact in our lives. With the ever increasing unwanted consumption of goods the similar quantity that is of waste which is being dumped daily, there is no end to this daily act. If we are willing to throw out something (any thing or stuff) daily as apart of our daily living, why do we buy it in the first place. Why don’t we think about it before purchasing anything to avoid wastage? Is it instant gratification? Have we become conditioned or manipulated guinea pigs to be experimented on? If that’s the case, why are we 7 billion people hooked on purchasing anything that we see and on the other hand throwing out stuff out in equal or even greater quantities?

Do we have any metric on the amount of wastage we create every hour? Why have we become buyers of stuff? Are we hoarders by nature? Just look around your house. Categorize what you see into needs and wants. Needs fall into the basket of real necessity and wants fall into the basket of desirables?We had created these hurdles for ourselves. Time to remove them. If and when we start subtracting the unnecessary hurdles from our lives there are some major advantages and even benefits to it.

We are seeing simplicity in our lives for the first time: LESS consumption equals LESS pollution. The more we consume the more we WILL pollute.

Less stress

It becomes a money saver

Also becomes an addictive habit

Takes off excess luggage from our backs

More space in our homes

Your wallet is happy

Life becomes peaceful

Frugality kicks into high gear

The list of desirables become shorter or even vanishes in some cases.

Paper is one of the products which we use every single day: right from our bathroom tissues to the paper that we use to write on. We are adding to the waste on both sides. On one side we are chopping down massive mature trees that have lived for 50 plus years within a matter of a few seconds using chainsaws and on the other hand the usage of paper is staggering year over year. In fact we are destroying trees and creating waste at the same time by the billions of metric tons per day. Where are we dumping these? Right in our own backyards. This is just for paper. What about the billions of gallons of ink that are being used in printing? Also we need to take into consideration the vast quantities of water that are being used in the treatment and manufacture of paper. So Man has leaned to exploit his own home (Earth), it’s resources, his fellow Humans and ultimately the environment in which he lives. Where does this all end? It will end in us. It will end in our own extinction. That’s when we will stop voluntarily.

Even today we subscribe to all magazines, we get tons of ad mail in our mailbox, and also solicitations that seem to appear from no where. These are all print material. This serves no one but exists for the very fact to get you to spend on goods that you don’t need. This very paper ends up in garbage after just a few seconds in your hands. The colors, print, the paper, and the very design is to condition your mind into succumbing you into purchasing. In the end it all comes down to money. Our money is part paper and part cloth. It has no value until we give it value. Other wise it is just that – paper and cloth. Centuries before our time, people were bartering, exchanging goods and services. Life still went on peacefully and businesses did do their business without the use of artificial money. So why not go back to our roots. There will be no receipts to print, no printers, no computers and no ads. Word of mouth will drive businesses, trust comes back in to fill the void of false ads and deceit, deals are done with a handshake or a fist bump and everyone will know everybody. This will eliminate waste and save trees. There will be no paper to print and trees to cut. Sometimes it’s best to go back to our roots and follow the trail of our ancestors.

Imagine the amount of trees which we are clearing for farming and raising cattle. This is in fact enormous. Going along with it are the use of our natural resources, pollution and expansion of our dumpsite. We seem to dumping into the very sources of water and food. This may include lakes, rivers, streams, seas and oceans. Big fish eats the small fish and ends up in our plate. This completes the life of pollution. We have created that very pollution and ultimately we are forced to eat it for our own very survival. This is only of what we know. Of many we don’t . This may never surface.

We are not only destroying our trees. We are destroying all macro and micro habitat along with it. Some we can see and most we don’t or can’t see. Many microscopic plants and animals do exist on the forest floor. Once the trees are gone, they are gone for ever. Because it takes many many years for a seed to mature into a tree. Evolution may not repeat itself in for many plants and animals. We have only one chance in making this right. STAY AWAY FROM TREES and leave them untouched. Nature will take care of itself without any interference by man. It had taken care of itself for billion of years, it can take care of itself now, WITHOUT US. So is it waster trees or wasted paper? We are clearing trees to make paper and in the process of making paper, we are exploiting our finite natural resources. Now that we have the paper in our hands, we use it the way a use and throw society works. It will come to bite us some day and the day appears to be now.

How can we help? How can we do our part in helping nature revive? The answer would be to create micro forests right in our own backyards instead of creating a dumpsite. The blog on micro forests as shown above might add a new chapter to your life and mine. Let’s do our part and then step back. Nature will do it’s magic with or without us.